“Shawn, come here,” dad said, coming into my bedroom. I glared at him but got up and followed him out of the room as Shane watched nervously. Dad led me into his room and pointed at his bed. “Sit,” he commanded and I did.

                He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Shawn, I’m mean to you because I love you and I don’t want you to make the stupid mistakes that I did. I don’t worry about Shane with relationship stuff as much as I do with you. For Shane, I worry about everything else a hell of a lot more. He’s easy to pressure. But you? You’re not. You do what you want, and that scares me,” he said, his eyes honest and pleading.

                “Dad, I won’t do anything bad!” I argued angrily, my temper quickly rising. Dad held his hands up and shook his head at me. “Calm down,” he said gently.

                “It’s not fair dad! You and mom obviously partied when you were our age!” I grumbled and he sighed and shook his head.

                “Shawn, yes. Your mother and I did bad things when we were teenagers. But I did those things because I hadn’t learned any better from my mom, and your mom only did them a little bit. Please just say no to drugs, drinks, and sex. Please Shawn. I can’t force you. I can just pray that you’re smart enough to make the right choice,” he said, his tone begging.

                “You guys treat me like I’m the bad kid!” I snapped. “Shawn, you are. You always have been. You’re mean and you don’t listen to me and mom. You’re the bratty one and Shane’s the dumb one. It’s true,” he said simply.

                “Shane’s not dumb!” I growled, clenching my fists. “I know. What I mean by dumb is…well, weak. He lets people control him. Including you,” he said, raising an eyebrow at me. I glared at my feet. I only did what I thought was best for my brother.

                Dad sighed. “Go to bed, Shawn. We’re done for now. But if I found out you’ve done anything bad, I’ll freaking kill you,” he threatened. I stood up and shrugged before leaving his room.

                “What did he want?” Shane asked nervously. “Just to basically threaten me not to have sex,” I grumbled before crawling onto the top bunk and sliding under the covers. I felt exhausted suddenly.

                The next day, I went up to Nina in the halls and smiled. “Hey you,” I said and hugged her, kissing her gently. I wouldn’t have sex with her. I wasn’t as dumb as my dad had been when he was a teenager. I knew the risks of teen sex, and I wasn’t going to chance it.

                “Want to go out for dinner tonight?” I offered and Nina shrugged and nodded. “Sure! Where?” she asked with a smile.

                “My Uncle Chris owns Saccento’s,” I said. Saccento’s was the name of the restaurant, and I knew Shane and his girlfriend went there a lot. It was a nice place, and Uncle Chris would give us a pretty private corner of the restaurant to sit and talk.

                “Chris Saccento is your uncle?” Nina asked curiously. “Kind of. He’s my dad’s best friend, so Shane and I call him Uncle Chris,” I explained with a shrug.

                “Oh. Cool,” she said with a smile and kissed my cheek. I smiled back at her.

                This would be a fun night. My parents were stupid if they thought I would make the same mistakes they did. Just because they had been dumb whores when they were kids, it didn’t mean I had to be.

                During lunch, I looked around until I had found Shane. “Shane! Come here. I have to talk to you,” I said. He gave me a curious look before standing up. He kissed his girlfriend before following me outside.

                We huddled in the corner and I looked around to make sure no one was outside before nodding at Shane.

                He sighed and dug around his pocket before producing two cigarettes. He handed one to me and took the other. I pulled out my lighter and hesitated. “Let’s just split one,” I said and he put one back in his pocket. I lit the cigarette, took a drag, and handed it to Shane.

                The door leading to the school opened and Shane and I jumped a little. Shane hid the cigarette behind him but we relaxed as Nina came out. She raised an eyebrow at us.

                “Smoking?” she guessed and we shrugged as Shane took a drag on the cigarette and handed it back to me.

                “Problem?” I asked casually, hoping she wouldn’t flip on me for smoking. Luna always ranted to Shane about how much she hated him smoking. Like, bitch, shut the fuck up. It was our choice, not anyone else’s. We were addicted. We couldn’t help it.

                Nina sighed and shook her head. “No. You can smoke if you want. I’m not your mom or whatever. I can’t tell you what to do Shawn,” she said.

                I smiled and pulled her into a hug. I kissed her deeply before taking the cigarette from Shane and taking a drag of it. Nina eyed it sadly but forced a smile and rested her head on my shoulder. I smiled even wider. She wasn’t even going to judge me for smoking. This was really going to be a great relationship. I could just feel it.